ValueAct Capital is a San Francisco-based investment company with a portfolio value calculated at about $9.269 billion on behalf of several institutional and individual investors. The company is a privately owned

hedge fund A hedge fund is a Pooling (resource management), pooled investment fund that holds Market liquidity, liquid assets and that makes use of complex trader (finance), trading and risk management techniques to aim to improve investment performance and ...

that invests in the public equity markets.

Background

ValueAct Capital was initially formed in June 2000 to manage the capital of its founders, along with the capital of a limited number of outside investors. The firm was led by Jeff Ubben from its founding until 2020 when Mason Morfit became CEO. In 2024, Rob Hale was elevated to the role of Co-CEO alongside Morfit.

Investor actions

ValueAct Capital is a very active investor that identifies companies that appear to be out of favor or may be undergoing a significant transition. ValueAct makes a significant investment into the company and then works with the company to make changes with the goal of increasing long-term stock value and thus creating a profit for ValueAct.

Rolls-Royce

In August 2020, the company sold all of the stake capital of

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

Microsoft

In May 2013 ValueAct Capital revealed that it had purchased $2 billion worth of

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

stock (less than 1%). Shortly thereafter the company announced that

Steve Ballmer Steven Anthony Ballmer (; March 24, 1956) is an American businessman and investor who served as chief executive officer of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014. He is the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He i ...

decided to leave

. The company subsequently announced an agreement to share information and work with ValueAct, as well as to give ValueAct an option to join the board of directors. It was speculated that pressure from ValueAct led to Ballmer's decision to leave the company but both Ballmer and Microsoft have said otherwise. Morfit joined the Microsoft Board of Directors in early 2014 and served until late 2017 during which time the company thrived under new CEO Satya Nadella.

The New York Times Company

ValueAct disclosed a 7% stake in

The New York Times Company The New York Times Company is an American mass media corporation that publishes ''The New York Times'' and its associated publications such as ''The New York Times International Edition'' and other media properties. The New York Times Company's ...

in August 2022. ValueAct aims to encourage the company to more actively pursue the sale of "bundled" subscriptions to its various offerings.

Salesforce

ValueAct disclosed a multi billion stake in

Salesforce Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, e-commerce, analytics, artificial intelligence, and ap ...

in January 2022. On January 27, Salesforce announced that it is appointing three new directors to the board, one of whom is Mason Morfit, CEO and CIO of ValueAct Capital.

Rocket Companies

In May 2025, ValuAct disclosed a 9.9% stake in Rocket Companies, the parent company of Rocket Mortgage.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:ValueAct Capital Hedge fund firms in California Financial services companies established in 2000 Companies based in San Francisco Shareholder-rights activists